SC Connecticut News

"John MacKay, a renowned scholar in 19th- and 20th-century Russian literature, was recently appointed the Henry S. McNeil Professor of Film and Media Studies and Slavic Languages and Literature, effective immediately. He is a member of Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Film and Media Studies Program. In his research, MacKay, who joined the Yale faculty in 1999, has shed new light on documentary and experimental film, early Soviet culture and its later reception, Marxist theory, the comparative and cross-linguistic study of film and media concepts, and the comparative study of the short story form. His four books reflect the breadth of his intellect and influence. 'Inscription and Modernity: From Wordsworth to Mandelstam' (2006) received praise for charting the mutability of inscriptive poetry in the midst of the great and catastrophic political, social, and intellectual upheavals of the late-18th to mid-20th centuries. He served as the editor and translator of his next book, 'Four Russian Serf Narratives' (2009), which was the first translated collection of autobiographies by serfs. This translation offered readers a glimpse into the realities of one of the largest systems of unfree labor in history, and allowed comparison with slave narratives produced in the United States and elsewhere. 'True Songs of Freedom: Uncle Tom’s Cabin in Russian Culture and Society' (2013), offers a transnational analysis mapping the range of responses to 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin' in the 19th- and 20th-century Russia and Soviet Union. MacKay’s latest book, 'Dziga Vertov: Life and Work (Volume 1: 2896-1921)' (2018), is the first in a planned three-volume series on controversial Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov. MacKay’s work on this volume earned him praise as one of the most sophisticated contemporary critics of Russian cinema. In recognition of this influential body of work, MacKay has given named or invited lectures at Columbia University, University of Chicago, University of London, Universität Dresden, and numerous other institutions. At Yale, he offers undergraduate courses on Chekhov, film studies and analysis, global film and media concepts, and Russian culture. His graduate course offerings include topic-based courses such as Soviet cinema, foundations of film and media, and slavery and serfdom in Russian and American literature. He has advised more than 20 graduate students and has formally and informally mentored many graduate and undergraduate students in Slavic Languages and Literatures, Film and Media Studies, and the Literature Program. MacKay is a distinguished citizen of the university. He is currently the director of graduate studies (DGS) of Film and Media Studies. He has served as the director of undergraduate studies for Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Film Studies program, the Russian and the East European Studies program, and the DGS for Slavic Languages and Literatures. He has also served as the chair of Film and Media Studies and of Slavic Languages and Literatures. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of British Columbia and a master of arts degree and his Ph.D. from Yale."###